Cape et poignard

This is the fourth and last of Fritz Lang's American espionage films and it is certainly a strange one. Written by Albert Maltz and Ring Lardner Jr. who were later blacklisted for their Communist sympathies, the film's anti-atomic sentiments have been expunged by the studio. As expected from Expressionist Lang the film looks wonderful but despite some thrilling moments it is on the whole uneven.

Inspired by the exploits of OSS operative Michael Burke this has Gary Cooper as a mild-mannered nuclear physicist who is attempting to smuggle a fellow physicist out of occupied Italy. He is aided in this by Italian partisans, one of whom is played by Lilli Palmer. Naturally, a romance blossoms.......

The character of Professor Jesper is surely one of the dullest heroes in film history which makes the casting of Gary Cooper a masterstroke. He carries it off wonderfully with his customary ease and we are with him all the way. He is especially sympathetic in his scenes with the marvellous Helene Thimig and Vladimir Sokolov and utilises the old charm with the double agent of Warner's contract player Marjorie Hoshell who is straight out of a film noir. His scenes with the Gina of Lilli Palmer just about work. There is certainly an emotional chemistry between them but alas not a physical one. As for Miss Palmer this is her first Hollywood film and proved to be a baptism by fire. Not only is her role as a traumatised bordering on paranoid resistance fighter extremely demanding, she was given a hard time by the director. Lang was known to be a bully and like all bullies picked on those least able to fight back. At one stage the entire crew walked out in protest at his treatment of her. When filming ended he told her; "I'll look after you in the cutting room." To his credit he did and she comes out very well. Needless to say Herr Lang was respectful towards Mr. Cooper!

The scene that lingers longest and the one directed by the sadistic Lang with true relish is the fight between Cooper and the Italian fascist agent of Marc Lawrence. Their gruesome and vicious struggle is played out to the sound of an Italian street singer while the child's toy ball bouncing down the stairs to the feet of the corpse is very effective and evidently a nod to his masterpiece 'M'.

Lang never concealed his loathing of meddling Hollywood producers and here once again his original ending in which the Germans appear to have the atomic bomb, has been cut. The horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were of course all too recent and it is one of Life's supreme ironies that ex-Nazi scientists were assisting America in its nuclear programme.

Despite its weaknesses this is still extremely watchable thanks to its charismatic cast, Lang's mastery of light and shade and of course the sine qua non of a Warner's film, Max Steiner's score.

For Gary Cooper, it's "Cloak and Dagger" in this 1946 film directed by Fritz Lang and also starring Lilli Palmer (in her American film debut) and Robert Alda.

Toward the end of WW II, it comes to U. S. attention that the Germans are developing a nuclear bomb. The OSS recruits a midwestern university scientist, Alvah Jesper (Cooper) to go to Switzerland.

There, he is to speak speak to a German scientist Dr. Loder (Helen Thimig) who has escaped to Switzerland, where she is now hospitalized. But Alvah's cover is blown, and he is being watched. In Italy searching for the scientist working with Dr. Lodor, Polda (Vladimir Sokoloff), Alvah is protected by guerrillas who include Gina (Palmer) and an American, Pinkie (Alda).

A bit slow at first, "Cloak and Dagger" picks up steam as it goes along. The most stunning scene occurs when, as an Italian sings a folk song outside, Alvah and an Italian Gestapo agent, Luigi, (Marc Lawrence) fight inside a building.

And by the way, Michael Burke, the OSS member who was the film's adviser, and an agent named Andreas Diamond, showed Lang the hand-to-hand combat used in this film.

Apparently, Gary Cooper had problems with the scientific dialogue (as he had problems with not understanding his speech at the end of The Fountainhead), and Warner Bros. Records state this fight scene was the only one he did well. A very suspenseful, exciting, and raw scene, the best in the film. The thrilling ending is top-notch as well.

The love that develops between Gina and Alvah is poignant, and beautiful Lilli Palmer gives a fantastic performance. I agree with others, Alvah seems pretty sharp and experienced for an untrained agent. Cooper is very good in a heroic role - strong but gentle and as usual, terribly handsome.

The ending of this film was changed from an antiwar one and anti-nuclear weapons, since by the time the film was released, since the bomb had just been dropped on Hiroshima.

Well worth seeing, if not ultimate Lang.

I have a sort of mission to track down and see all of Fritz Lang's American movies and welcomed the opportunity to watch this post Second World War Drama starring Gary Cooper. The film has its longueurs but on the whole tells a good story and contains at least one memorable set-piece by the great director.

Cooper's Hollywood roles tended to fall into two broad categories - shy bumbling whiter-than-white innocents ( see "Mr Deeds...", "Meet John Doe" or "Ball Of Fire") or calm, grace-under-pressure heroes like here. For me he does both equally well and while you can see that the man has aged as he enters the twilight of his career, he still carries off with aplomb the lead role. He also convinces in his relationship with his younger love interest, Lilli Palmer, who besides her good looks, displays maturity and sensitivity in her role as a behind-the-lines Resistance fighter.

The story has a topical theme too, the race to the Atomic bomb and Coop's character gets in a hefty diatribe early on about the perverse uses that science is being put to by men before he's drafted by an old comrade, now in the American secret service, to attempt to rescue a pair of fellow-scientists from enforced collaboration with the Nazis.

For me the story hangs together well, the acting as indicated, is good and the cinematography throughout is fine. The story does drag a bit in the middle as Cooper and Palmer start to get to know each other but is enlivened by the memorable "dirty-fight" between Cooper (and Palmer) with a pursuing enemy agent. No hay-maker punches here with enhanced sound effects, instead the fight encompasses face-gauging and finger bending before erstwhile peace-loving scientist Cooper dispatches his protagonist by strangulation. Lang then piles on the suspense with a scene reminiscent of "M" as a little boy's ball innocently bounces to where the fresh corpse lies, threatening discovery, only for Cooper to quickly improvise a cover-up. The fight scene (indeed some of the plot elements too) surely entered Hitchcock's thoughts when he produced his 1960's Cold War thriller "Torn Curtain".

Lang also doesn't shirk the brutalities of war, for instance the German nurse's brutal slaying of elderly, maternal scientist number one and the casual announcement later by a female Nazi agent that the second scientist's kidnapped daughter has also been cold-bloodedly slain.

On the whole a good, solid movie, not without faults but another worthy entry on my Lang-watch list.

Toward the end of World War II, the allied secret service receives a partial message indicating that the Germans are researching nuclear energy to build atomic bombs. In Midwestern University, the scientist Alvah Jesper (Gary Cooper) is called up by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to meet his former colleague Dr. Katerin Lodor (Helen Thimig) in Switzerland and bring her to North America. However, his mission fails and Dr. Lodor is killed by the Nazis but first she informs that Alvah's acquaintance Dr. Giovanni Polda (Vladimir Sokoloff) is working for the Nazis in Italy. Dr. Jesper travels to Italy and with the support of the Italian partisans leaded by Pinkie (Robert Alda) and Gina (Lilli Palmer), he has a meeting with Dr. Polda that is under the surveillance of the Gestapo. The scientist tells him that his daughter Maria had been abducted by the Gestapo and Alvah makes a deal with Dr. Polda, promising to release Maria first and bringing them to North America. While Pinkie travels to rescue Maria, Alvah stays with Gina and they fall in love for each other.

"Cloak and Dagger" is a suspenseful and full of action romance in times of war. The enjoyable story has good moments of tension but it is only a reasonable work of Fritz Lang. Gary Cooper's character seems to be a skilled and well-trained agent and not a scientist in many moments and Lili Palmer performs a strong female character in one of her first works. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Grande Segredo" ("The Great Secret")

One of 'Cloak and Dagger's' biggest attractions was having Fritz Lang as its director, have said more than once about liking Lang a lot as a director and this film does nothing to change my mind. Of the cast, Gary Cooper is the most familiar name to me and while there are performances of his that are great there are a few that are not so good. The story sounded really interesting on paper and sounded like it would be a very atmospheric film.

'Cloak and Dagger', when seeing it, could easily have been very run of the mill and very routine. Instead, to me on the most part it was really quite gripping. While 'Cloak and Dagger' is not one of Lang's best films, not by a long shot, and there are better spy thrillers out there, but it is still well done and better than a lot of similarly themed films from around this period and doesn't do anything to squander Lang's or Cooper's talents (a good thing, wastes of talent get on my nerves).

Very atmospheric photography is an obvious good point, and the same goes for the lighting. Both add to the film's bleak atmosphere. Lang directs with great skill, didn't get the sense that he was bored or unsure of what he was doing, instead in control of the material and getting much out of it as possible. The script doesn't ramble or feel melodramatic, with it feeling as tight and cohesive as ought generally. The story more often than not is dripping in tension, at its best nail-biting, and the time that the film is set in is superbly portrayed in a frighteningly bleak manner and not shying away.

There is one fight scene that is particularly tense. Cooper does very well in his role once he warmed into it. Lilli Palmer excels even better in a sensitive performance as a character just as interesting. Everybody else is solid, with Robert Alda being especially memorable.

Unfortunately, 'Cloak and Dagger' does start off a bit too sluggishly and uncertain, would go as far to say routine.

While the central relationship settles believably once things get going (which it took perhaps a little too much time to do so), it wasn't one that settled straightaway and took time to. The music is too intrusive in volume and tone, over-emphasising the mood.

Altogether, solid film if not a great one. 7/10